Geraldine Warner - Protest Knits

Herbert Press

An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

www.bloomsbury.com

This electronic edition published in 2017 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

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First published in Great Britain 2017

Bloomsbury Publishing plc

Created for Bloomsbury by Plum5 Ltd

Written by Geraldine Warner

Technical Editor Gwendolyn Wagner-Adair (Petitchoufleur Knits)

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ISBN: 978-1-9122-1700-7 (HB)
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C ONTENTS

Introduction

Why Protest Knits?

On January 20th 2017, Donald John Trump was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States. Four months later, the worlds first protest from space was staged. Yup, you read that right the Autonomous Space Agency Network (a community promoting open-source, DIY space exploration) flew a message addressed to Trump reading LOOK AT THAT YOU SON OF A BITCH and got it up to 90,000 feet above the earths surface attached to a weather balloon.

Take a look around at whats going on how did we get here? Were witnessing and taking part in the highest number of protests this century has seen so far, and feelings are running so high that protestors are searching for ever more innovative ways to make their voices heard. When democracy and human rights are threatened, every voice counts and we have to use all the tools we can lay our hands on not everyone can get hold of a handy weather balloon, but we protestors are a notoriously resourceful bunch; how about channelling your anger by grabbing your your needles and yarn to fight the good fight?

This collection of 17 knitting and crochet projects should get your activist juices flowing, all capturing the spirit of protest and revolution, mixed in with a liberal dose of the humour in evidence at so many recent protest marches worldwide. Craft itself is undergoing something of a revolution and ties into a grassroots folk tradition the materials are cheap, readily available and get the message across. You could even start up a protest knit community and work on projects together while you hotly debate the issues at hand.

The book includes something for every occasion, ranging from the quick and simple (labelled Easy), to items with a longer-term view (labelled Difficult). Even the difficult ones arent that hard, although they might call on your colourwork skills.

I came here to knit hats and punch nazis and Im all outta yarn

A Short History

Knitting and Protests

Fun fact: knitting as a hobby is a relatively recent activity, although traditionally it already comes with some baggage. For the last 100 years it has brought with it images of comfort and home-making, and is seen as a genteel pastime enabling women to feel theyre doing something useful and productive with their spare time.

It has had its moments however: in No Idle Hands , Anne McDonald looks at the important role that knitters and female crafters had to play in the American War of Independence through the creation of garments and home furnishings to help break UK dependence. Back in old Blighty, from the Boer War onwards, women were urged to knit for the men fighting abroad, while the Second World War gave the activity a sense of innovation as yarn was rationed and clothing was unravelled to be recrafted into new items.

As it became cheaper to buy clothing instead of making it, and lack of spare time rendered the hobby a less useful activity for busy women, knitting faded from popularity along with sewing and other textile crafts. In addition to economic practicalities, the image of women sitting at home knitting did not fit in with the modern feminist movements challenge to traditional female constructs. Happily, the recent post-technological craft revolution has seen a new wave of makers coming through who want to subvert the conservative image presented by knitting and to take it out of the realms of the passive into a more active arena.

In 2005, a Houston-based group of knitting individuals formed the group Knitta Please. With names inspired by hip-hop stars (LoopDogg, SonOfAStitch, The Knotorious N.I.T.), and their method of tagging their work, they conjured a more challenging attitude. They took to the urban streets with their own brand of knitted graffiti, decorating lamp-posts, railings, fire hydrants, and anything else they considered would benefit from a bit of woolly beautification.

This fun, edgy version of knitting took off worldwide, and hundreds of cities and towns saw increasingly ambitious knitted graffiti springing up in the streets. The term yarn-bombing was born, lending the craft a more aggressive slant.

Fast-forward a decade and sadly, women once again feel they need to challenge their role in society. As the liberal western world faces a battle with the political right, we are motivated to provide a loud reminder of how hard we have fought to gain some gender equilibrium. The beauty of this method of subversion is that instead of ignoring its feminine roots, it both uses and challenges them at the same time. On the one hand, a woman knitting? Great, she knows her place! On the other, an activist woman using the craft to knit protest slogans? Wait, whats wrong with this picture?!

The Pussy Hat is the perfect embodiment of just that. It first came to the attention of the media at the beginning of 2017, along with a leaked audio-clip of the recently-inaugurated POTUS Donald Trump discussing women: When youre a star they let you do it. Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything. As a result, the pink Pussy Hat was born an instant, easy to make visual statement which, when worn en masse, has enormous impact. Dare you to grab this pussy! Keen not to be lumped in with this image of outdated sexism, men joined in the protest and wore their own versions.